Victoria Day... from Morinville to Westlock

Our photo-opps with Jesus completed, we walked to the sidewalk before jogging across the street. Hopping into our vehicle I made a quick u-turn on 100th Avenue and headed back out to Highway 2. Heading north just outside of Morinville we spotted a tourist sign stating "Legal, home of the French Murals."Giggling because our own small town boasts numerous murals, I said, "Let's see if Legal's murals are anywhere near as exquisite as Stony Plains'?" Eye-balling me out her peripherral vision Shauna simplified to, "Really?" "Why not?" "Sure... let's see what they are," she replied astonished by my lust for misadventure.

Nineteen kilometers later I hung a right onto secondary road 642. Speeding past two slow moving vehicles, I tilted the moonroof closed as a farmer kicked up field dust in his tractor sending billows of dirt clouds across the roadway ahead. Through the cloud we adjusted our speed from 100 kmph down to a brisk walk of 40 kmph (25 mph). Moving down 50th Avenue, I pulled left onto 48th Street and parked beside a large horse mural. Picking up cameras we walked in opposite directions. Two murals later Shauna went back to sitting in the car. As I

Down an alley, I spotted a logo mural for the town. Stopping we snaped a few more pictures. Around a corner back to 50th, I began laughing as the stop sign read, "Arret Stop." Shauna glaring at me through her Oakley sunglasses said, "all stop signs used to have French and English. Now only a few towns keep them this way." Pausing I tried capturing the two words with something in the background. Nothing. I decided to turn the corner when a tractor roared down in front of us! "Wouldn't you know it. Just when I put the camera away something actually exciting in this town happens." Laughing again we sped off back towards the main highway.

Ten seconds out onto highway 2, we passed a sign stating kilometers to various towns. "Hey, wasn't there something in Westlock on that checklist paper?" I asked. "Yup. They have the World's Largest Weathervane," Shauna replied. "Why don't we go check it out? Its only 12-kilometers down the next road. Plus I could use a bathroom break. And maybe their tourist info center is open?" "Okay. Are you sure?" "Yes.

Pushing open the door to the tourist office a set of chims rang our presence. A kind voice from inside the room greeted us. "Hello, may I help you?" "Yes. We are looking for directions to the World's Largest Weathervane?" Shauna inquired. "Really?" an excited response greeted our inquiry. "Yes. You see, we have a copy of this week's Vue Weekly which has Alberta's World's Largest Checklist in their new summer road trip guide. And since we were heading to Athabasca, we decided to stop here and see the World's Largest Weathervane.

"Well..." Karen to which her name tag said her name was excitedly began explaining how Travel Alberta has put together an adventure road trip passport. Where you go around to random cities all over Alberta collecting stamps for seeing the World's Largest Icons. And once you have collected X-amount of stamps before October 12th, you can enter a contest to win up to $2,000 in cash! She went on to say, "since you were already planning on going around to see these places... why not collect stamps and enter the contest, too!?"

enthusiasm as Karen about collecting passport stamps for visiting Alberta's Largest Icons! That's when I saw the Free Booklet Rack. "May I have one of these," I asked pointing to The Complete Guide on How To Get Lost in Grand Cache magazine. "Sure. But most of those are from last year. So the event dates will be off." "I don't mind. I just want to read about more about traveling inside Canada," I said as I chose to take an Explore Alberta Parks guide, the 2012 Saskatchewan Discovery Guide, a Spectacular Northwest Territories and the Yukon Vaction Planner.

Forgetting about the bathroom altogether and buzzing from the idea of collecting stamps we thanked Karen for her time, advice and the magazines. Back inside the car with our Passport to Alberta's Community Icons we pulled right onto Highway 18 heading for the weathervane. Braking before the railroad tracks we yielded left behind a maroon Chevy Equinox. The Chevy came to an abrupt stop, as I pulled an evasive maneuver dodging around its left side and passing with a waving finger out the sunroof.

Around a corner and into the Canadian Tractor Museum parking lot I slowed the Corolla to a stop. Hopping out we

were both instantly impressed by the large white pole with an orange tractor and green directional posts before us. Reading the passport we learned the organe tractor was a 1942 Model-D Case Tractor. And it sat at a height of 15-meters (50 foot). Walking up to the poll, I swat at mosquitos that came out of thin air.

"Wow! Its enormous," I marveled taking photographs of the post, tractor and directional markings. "Magnificent," I thought. Then I ran out into the lawn setting up for another posed photograph with this Iconic town symbol. "Hey, when we make it back to the car, can I get some of that mosquito repellent?" "Yep..." came her response as she readied for our group shot.

Since 2002, Aaron has lived, traveled and worked in America, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. Plus he has taken holidays to Costa Rica, Fiji, Mexico, Philippines and Vietnam.
Since 2002, Shauna has lived, traveled and worked in Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Spain. Plus she has taken holidays to America, China, England, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Skipping forward to 2007, Shauna and I decided to cohabitate in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Our vision was to move in together, build a wealth of cash and move to a warm aired, oceanside community within 12-m... full info

A land of vast distances and rich natural resources, Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867 while retaining ties to the British crown. Economically and technologically the nation has developed in parallel with the US, its neighbor to the sou...more history